Kaywin Feldman and the National Gallery of Art Girl Scouts Entering the Kaywin Feldman National Gallery of Art, East Building, that crooked, unfriendly museum that hides art in closets and exposes visitors to a Piranesi-like prison, you will notice two little light-boards near a gaping bulwark beneath a threatening metal sheet along an ominous…
Beautiful Living, Considered Having never been to Heaven, as far as I remember, I cannot speak of heavenly beauty, of life in the eternal divine. And yet, I have read accounts of those who have visited Heaven, some few of the thousands who relate near-death experiences, and I have read and have considered Swedenborg’s…
The National Gallery of Art Petting Zoo Here we are on the Acropolis, in the picture gallery, the Pinakotheke, looking from the Propylaea to John Russell Pope’s National Gallery of Art. What a view, 5,125 miles and farther in time, 2,500 years, the distance between Phidias, Pericles, Plato, and you. What a view. Over…
This, below, the preamble to an old book of notes, chapters, really, 40 chapters that considered American history in entire, every art, every craft, every variation. The thing is cumbersome, not likely to be published in its present form, if at all. Yet, opening statements, because brief, would like sharing for the introduction of a…
The bird learns to fly by being pushed from the nest. Sea turtles know they must run to the ocean. Baby ducks ride mother’s back until learning by example to swim. The tadpole grows legs and hops; the caterpillar grows wings and flies; what must the finger-painter grow to become a picture-maker. Certain you have…
Fellow Americans: You might be surprised to learn that you are Greek, in the first instance; that you are Roman, a child of Lucius Junius Brutus; that you are Catholic, even if atheist; that you ascend from victories in the Art of War; that you, fellow Americans, are Hellenocentric, even if citizens of the One…
Many years ago, beneath nine, lovely, star-snowed nights, Mnemosyne [ne-mos-ie-ne] enjoyed the favor of Zeus-shepherd, each night bearing forth from love a Muse, as Hesiod in Theogony relates. Before the Muse History (Clio), before Love Poetry (Erato), before Song (Euterpe) and all the rest, there was Memory (Mnemosyne), god borne, corporeal, beautiful. We muse in…
Preface III: Our Classical Heritage Part II: Classive and Progressive, Considered * * * WHEN MIGHT WASHINGTON, D.C. CEASE TO BE OUR ARCHITECTURE and monuments are, in truth, in fact, us. When we cease to be who we are, our statues, memorials and monuments will be removed to museums —Museum, from Mouseῖon, “a seat, a…
